A/N: The holidays are killing me, and this chapter took longer than I expected since I'm filling in the gaps of the last three chapters in order to hit the climax for this first arc of this story. Unlike my previous story with 'Clouds Breaking' that was more of a need to hate on Otae than actually explore Shinpachi as a character, this story will definitely last just about fifteen chapters if I don't go overboard.
And I've been wanting to remain faithful to the Gintama aesthetic for my story, but whenever I write about Shinpachi, I always get Ghibli feels instead.
._._._.
Chapter 4
Over five months ago, Shinpachi witnessed Housen murder a courtesan. It had shocked him at first, but then his mind immediately realized the oddity of such a scene. What was she doing there in the first place? Shinpachi had been in the palace long enough to understand its culture. How had he not noticed her at all when Housen came to him when usually a courtesan would let herself be in view by Housen's side? And why was her face unrecognizable? The boy had met them all, and he prided himself as someone with a great memory for faces and names. No one new had been chosen to join.
When he got close and shortly examined her, he noticed a black sun tattoo below the woman's armpit. It was a tattoo that Shinpachi had thought he was hallucinating when his eyes would accidentally land on Nobuyuki's throat due to his height. Having actually seen the tattoo on a person made the boy too curious to not research the coincidence.
One thing people wouldn't expect of Yoshiwara was for it to have a library, but where else would they store the literature that the courtesans needed to learn in order to enchant their men. Shinpachi had been using the library when he had the spare time to do what he liked. In the library was not only knowledge about Japan but of foreign planets, too, since those types of customers did arrive from time to time and being knowledgeable about their anatomy and culture was important to successfully seduce them.
Shinpachi used the index in order to find the book he was looking for among the hundreds kept securely. He at first checked for the significance of a black sun in Japanese historical culture, but nothing came up. So he looked to foreign culture and history, and to his amazement, he found plenty of tribes who use the symbol of the black sun, but one tribe in particular stood out to him.
The Black Sun Amanto Tribe (BSAT) was a group of pirates that was once the seventh and last division of the growing Harusame decades ago. They were valuable to the organization since their kind were known for their god-like invulnerability, resilience and durability. They were the most depended on to make sure trade deals went smoothly, yet that trust came to halt when the Elders discovered that the BSAT was stealing weapons to overthrow them and take control. In order to avoid this, they reached out to Housen with the reward of becoming a part of Harusame. This of course meant that there would be proper payroll, a wider network and plenty of new territory to explore.
Though the BSAT was practically indestructible, they had their limits and their weaknesses. First, they weren't fighters. They were weapons savvy, but technology could only do so much to stop a bunch of blood thirsty rabbits that weren't as dumb as they thought. Usually a yato would just charge into a battle, but Housen had the self-restraint and the wisdom to know better. He studied the tribe before properly taking them down in multiple ambushes that resulted in only three surviving. The only reason they survived was because House wasn't their opponent, and a gunman had saved them.
The Elders were worried that this slip-up may result in the survivors recruiting new members to join their crew, so they obliterated the BSAT's home planet with the three last survivors. Or so they had thought.
Shinpachi, now without a doubt, saw the black sun tattoo on Nobuyuki's throat, and he remembered that he would see it when the amanto in disguise was malicious. The boy reluctantly remembered looking up at Nobuyuki as he was beatened to see that black mark in the faint light. Golden eyes softly gleaming. Yet he hadn't seen that terrifying look since he entered the palace. He was deemed to have no need for anymore beatings, especially after what Housen put him through.
._._._.
"Have you ever thought of murder, Haku?" Nobuyuki strangely inquired one day as he taught the boy calligraphy.
Shinpachi stopped his paint stroke. He looked up at his sensei with innocent confusion. Sure the man was sadistic and a wanted criminal, but Shinpachi didn't see him as a threat. With all the dirty businesses going around, Nobuyuki blended right in with justifiable reasons to assassinate Housen. Shinpachi may have come to love spending time with the King, and in a way would be sad if he died, but with such a dangerous past and current lifestyle, it was only a matter of time. Then again, Shinpachi knew that if Nobuyuki had his way, nothing about Yoshiwara will change.
The boy answered the question hesitantly, "N-No. Uhm, I mean I think about how awful it is that the courtesans are murdered here from time to time, but I don't think about committing it, if that's what you mean?" He wondered if that even made sense or if he spoke too many words and it just became diluted.
Nobuyuki understood perfectly. His voice seem to dance teasingly, "Is that so? But weren't you being raised into a samurai before coming here, Haku? Don't you know what samurai do?"
Shinpachi glared at him. "Of course I do! But they do it in order to protect what's important to them!"
"Really? Then tell me who are the samurai: the policemen who fight with their swords for the sake of peace, but does it under a government that betrayed the samurai? Or is it the joi rebels who destroys the peace by going after the government, but does it so that their own culture is not erased by the invasion of foreigners, and that men like your father did not have to destroy his family by playing their rules?"
Shinpachi at first thought he could easily answer the man, but then at the mention of his father, his lips did not open. He mentally argued that the foreigners shouldn't be blamed for his father's stupid mistakes. Yet looking into the larger scale of things, he understood through his history lessons of the boundless cruelty subjected to Japan due to the invasion of these foreigners. He understood that in order to keep such a traitorous government from completely abandoning its people for the sake of a foreigner's pleasure, natives had to step up against it. But Shinpachi knew that not every Joi rebel was out for the sake of the country, and instead were out to gain the past glories of a samurai filled with prestige and power. But that kind of samurai was nothing more than a bully to the child.
It was definitely a difficult question that Shinpachi tried to think smaller, and his brain conjured up Hajime-nii and his father. The student that embraced the future with a smile, but died with his dreams. And the master who embraced the past with pride that destroyed his family. In addition, neither of them in their own way were able to protect Shinpachi from his fate.
"I don't know." He replied lowly in resignation. "I believed that being a samurai meant being a warrior willing to protect what matters, so..." His eyes looked ahead of him as words slipped away from his mouth in waves. "Did I mean less than a dojo? Did a wife, the mother of his children, mean less than his own pride? A samurai protecting what matters? He was just protecting himself." Shinpachi didn't want to speak the next words, but he felt so frustrated with the family that let him down. "And what do you mean smile even if I'm in pain in front of everyone? Laugh when I want to cry? I'll just look like a maniac, idiot! Hajime-nii," Shinpachi felt himself tremble violently but he did his best to contain himself as his emotions leaked away in his voice, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! But why did you have to die?!"
Nobuyuki took away the paintbrush and the paper since the tears were ruining it. "Even cursing the name of your big brother, my, have we come full circle. You should just abandon it. You'll become a proper courtesan by then."
Shinpachi didn't reply immediately because he was too overwhelmed. He let himself cry for the rest of the session until he fell asleep. He woke up a few hours later to find himself in his room where Nobuyuki was wetting a towel in a bowl of water.
"I already cancelled your other lessons, but you are still expected to see Lord Housen. I cooled away the puffiness, so you wont greet him with a pathetic face."
Shinpachi sat up and Nobuyuki passed him a cup of water that he took careful gulps of. He thanked him and then said, "You want me to stop having the spirit of a samurai?"
"I want you to stop giving your personality such a foolish title. Samurai are nothing more than thugs for political or personal gain, and if none of those, then they become their teacher who will just produce more of these no good thugs. Besides isn't the one you want to emulate is Hinowa? Give up on this nonsense samurai soul and embrace the soul of a courtesan."
"Soul of a courtesan?" Shinpachi found that to be an interesting concept. "So the soul of an entertainer for pleasure of not only the body and mind but also the soul..." The boy gave it more considerable thought, though the face of Hajime-nii filled his vision. He was a teacher, but he was still a student who wanted to expand his knowledge since a samurai was always evolving and discovering. This led to Shinpachi to think critically in order to find the right words to say.
"I...I know I probably should forget my old life as the child and student of the samurai since I am no longer in a place or era for samurai to exist, but..." Hajime-nii's smile shone brightly in his memories. Shinpachi got up and opened a door that led to a balcony where he could see the orange lights of Yoshiwara. He knelled down, staring out at the ridiculous men buying their courtesans. "What you say is true for the present. After the government had betrayed the samurai who swore to protect this nation, the employment for samurai dwindled as the years grew. This caused those who were only ever taught the sword like my father to struggle in the new world, especially since body guards with guns were more efficient than swords."
Nobuyuki knelled beside him. "Is there a but?"
Shinpachi let himself smile despite the pain he felt, but his lips dropped immediately. Instead of a force happiness, he used his frustration and anger again, but with more control, "Hajime-nii...Maybe people these days abuse the title of samurai since it no longer stands to mean anything in this new era, but if such a word is free, then anyone can claim it as their own. As for Hajime-nii, he may have become a teacher of thugs, but he always had the best intentions to make them into warriors who would protect what needed to be protected, including oneself..." Shinpachi felt a sense of satisfaction in being able to spout that with clarity. A small smile crept on his face. "So Nobuyuki-san, I will still call the soul I bear the soul of a samurai that I forged through the teachings of Hajime-nii. And I don't mind merging that soul with the soul of a courtesan."
Nobuyuki snorted charmingly, "So you are a prostituting samurai?"
Shinpachi giggled. "It will be my trademark!"
The two laughed together like they had a couple of times during lessons, and continued to talk with more laughter over philosophy, gossip, and the such until it was time for Nobuyuki to leave before Shinpachi had to get ready for his meeting with Housen. Shinpachi smiled as he watched him leave, and then scrambled to get his papers where he recorded the conversation, the atmosphere, the veteran's attitude and the such. He looked back at the couple of weeks of conversations he had with Nobuyuki, and he was sure that something wasn't right about the man other than being secretly an amanto.
Before entering the palace, Shinpachi noted that Nobuyuki had three distinct moods. One mood was the sadistic one who carried out the beatings and the intense uncomfortable conversations. The second mood was a mood that would appear when it was time to evaluate Shinpachi for Housen or if the King was most likely to visit or be nearby. It would be described by first impression to be carefree yet disciplined, but the better word was two-faced and apathetic. This one would carry lessons smoothly and praise Shinpachi, but due to a slip up of word choices, the boy recognized the lining of a mask in his character. As for the third, this one was the one with him tonight and many nights that did not require a beating or an interrogation. This mood was elegant like the second mood, but was far more genuine in his curiosity, consideration and playfulness.
Shinpachi knew that people had their mood swings, but looking over his written recordings, he could declare without a doubt that there was a possibility that the three survivors were all disguised as Nobuyuki. He knew that the only way he could discover the truth was by asking for the truth, but he knew better than to ask any of the three Nobuyukis.
He then remembered a few months ago before he entered the palace that one of Nobuyuki's regular customers, the man in the conical hat, had once winked at him. This particular customer had drawn Shinpachi's attention since the man seemed to be human, but his eyes were like a turtle's. The lids were swollen, the whites were instead black, and his irises were wider with a bold golden stone color.
Shinpachi, out of pure curiosity, had tried to find this man's race. With what little he knew, Shinpachi discovered that the man was most likely a shapeshifter amanto from the Turtle-Beetle Clan. The Black Sun Amanto Tribe were known to be the most invulnerable in Harusame, but in the universe, the Turtle-Beetle Clan hails undefeated. They're known to withstand any weight or pressure placed on their body, survive and adapt in any given environment, and even live for decades without food or water. The Clan and the Tribe members had the tendency to either work together or be at odds for the defense of many organizations that paid for their services.
There was many interesting facts that Shinpachi read, but the knowledge he needed was on how to send a vague message to the man in the conical hat. He remembered that the Turtle-Beetle Clan's writing system were in hieroglyphics, but to write a message with those hieroglyphs would obviously alert the Nobuyukis. He wondered for a couple of days on how to do it until in the middle of baking, origami had popped in his head.
A rush of exhilaration and pride swelled his heart. He held those emotions down when logic provided the fear for survival. One thing Shinpachi noticed before entering the palace was that Jiraia was always absent from Yoshiwara when the man in the conical hat arrives. It was obvious by how ten times more vigilant the Hyakka would become, and how Tsukuyo had made herself more prominent on the streets, illuminating brighter on her feet. This avoidance for the shinobi may mean that the amanto was both cautious and dangerous. Shinpachi reconsidered reaching out to him, but he needed answers, and in Yoshiwara, the only way to do that was to take a risk.
._._._.
"Is that how you're going to fight when a customer tries to rape you violently?" The aggressive Nobuyuki inquired, his hand softly squeezing Shinpachi's throat. The nine-year-old calmly and slowly breathed through his nose, used to such brutality. They were currently located at a well matted empty room that was used for self-defense classes.
Shinpachi did not get beatings where he can't fight back anymore, but this Nobuyuki always found an opportunity to bruise his flesh. Shinpachi could see it in his eyes that he wanted to take a match and char his skin, or dig those finely maintained nails into his larynx.
"No." He simply answered to not evoke rage. "I slipped my footing. I'll fix that, Nobuyuki-san."
This Nobuyuki tried to find any reason in the boy's wording to evoke that rage, but he couldn't. Instead he roughly pushed the boy down and got above him. Shinpachi felt a shiver of disgust and fear rack his body, and he was quick to try to use the moves that he was taught, but this Nobuyuki was quicker, and slapped the boy's face hard enough for a thunderclap to ring in the room. Shinpachi lost focus for a bit, but regained it to kick the veteran courtesan in the stomach. But his foot met with what didn't feel like flesh but stone. It sent a shockwave of pain through the boy's leg. The other side of his face was slapped just as hard for his retaliation.
Shinpachi kept his eyes open to look at Nobuyuki's throat, and faintly he saw the black sun tattoo on his throat. Remembering what he read about the Black Sun people, with a swift hand, he stabbed his fingers into the side of the man's throat. When the man audibly gasped, Shinpachi punched him in the eye to get him off. He then quickly got on his feet and ran to a safe corner.
The nine-year-old saw the black sun tattoo become completely visible as those golden eyes glared at him. Yet something seemed to pull the man back from unleashing the monster he truly was. This Nobuyuki then smiled hard at Shinpachi with those dead obsidian eyes. "I suppose this is when the Hyakka members will come and kill such a customer. Every maggot who comes through those doors may think this is their heaven, but they should know better that they're within somebody's own home, and break one of their merchandise, the owner will break you."
Shinpachi felt his head become airy once his body let him breathe slower. His feet felt planted on the floor as his body stiffened as if it could harden for any incoming attack. This Nobuyuki gave him a painfully hard playful smile. Shinpachi felt ice crawl up his stomach while his ears cringed at this awkward man's words, "But honestly, what about rape play? I mean can a hyakka member really tell the difference between real abuse and acting in a bedroom? I mean there's no such thing as consensual in this city. You either have sex or die. Isn't that right, Haku."
"ENOUGH!" Shinpachi demanded, sick of this amanto's twisted words. He wrung his brain for higher intelligent words to put this abuser in his place, "Break this and break that? Why even bother with fending oneself from the abusive touch of others? What insipid dialogue are you trying to have with me? During a self-defense lesson no less?! You should feel ashamed for speaking like that as a veteran, Nobuyuki-san. You may not have chosen this life for yourself, but to put that self-hatred onto a student makes you cringe-worthily pitiful. You should let go of your grand delusions of being a horror filled autobiographic genre of a male courtesan!" Shinpachi stomped his foot, throwing his fists down and head down with eyes closed, but voice raised thunderously, "YOU ABUSIVE FAKE!"
He rose his hand, and thought his heart would stop when he was met with death contorting the face of the beautiful man who rose his hand to strike. But that arm suddenly jerked to a stop. This Nobuyuki looked at his arm to see steel wires holding it back. Shinpachi felt his body taken into the safety of Tsukuyo's arms while Jiraia kept Nobuyuki constrained.
When Tsukuyo carried him to the exit, Shinpachi's brain launched the memories of the kind Nobuyuki. He yelled, "Wait! I'm sorry! It was my fault! Please don't hurt him!" Everyone was surprised by his desperate plea. "I was frustrated with being unable to accomplish this lesson that I took it out on Nobuyuki-san who wasn't feeling well either. Please, your job is to protect the well-being of the courtesans, and I am not harmed beyond necessary."
Nobuyuki looked at him but Shinpachi kept his attention on Jiraia. The man seemed to take his word into consideration, and then agreed. "You are right, but Lord Housen may think differently if he saw your swollen cheeks."
"That's a matter between the two of us." The nine-year-old spoke too boldly that the teenage Tsukuyo was taken aback. Shinpachi excused himself before walking out of that room in a lady-like manner. Later that night, Shinpachi had applied his makeup to hide the bruising, but Housen could see how the boy strained to smile. When he touched the boy's cheek, the boy leaned into it despite the piercing pain.
"Jiraia informed me of what happened. It sounds to me that you have a bad habit of talking back to your superiors."
"Only when they aren't doing an adequate job." The boy cheekily said as he placed his stone piece on the Go board. "Although Nobuyuki-san did not harm nor offend me beyond what was required during our lesson. I was the one who got angry for no reason, so if there's anyone who should be punished, it should be me."
Housen placed his piece down with a quick remark, "Adults who are defended by children deserve to be the ones punished. But I shouldn't be surprised that you would be so quick to defend your favorite tutor. Foolish samurai are all about being self-sacrificial."
"It helps keep one modest and realistic, Lord Housen." Shinpachi slyly teased the man as he sipped from his own tea.
Housen laughed! Shinpachi laughed with him and the two laughed louder and louder in the room until they began making the ugliest laughing face. The man ruffled the boy's perfect hair. Shinpachi weakly pushed him away, and just ended up falling on the floor. Once their laughter died down, Shinpachi sat back up.
His thoughts led to what he discovered about Nobuyuki and for a moment he wanted to spill the true reason he defended the abusive Nobuyuki earlier. There was a chance the King already knew the true state of the veteran male courtesan, and is probably just waiting for the right opportunity to take down the remaining survivors of the BSAT. Shinpachi felt his heart clench at his own prediction that if he did ask, Housen would admit that the precious times that they spent together was nothing more than a calculated move. That this laughter they shared was hollow.
He couldn't stand to be disappointed so he just let the question go, and instead wanted to know, "Tell me more about the yato clan. There's barely any books written about your own culture beyond the violence. I want to know more if possible of what a yato is. It's only fair since you know so much about the samurai."
Housen thought for a moment, "A culture is made up of a society's habits, but Kouan's destruction back before I was a babe had caused the yato to separate, so small details of our past culture had become endangered while the major more violent ones are kept alive due to our nature."
"But your ancestors were one of the few survivors after its destruction that remained on Kouan, but after the many deaths it took to live there, one of your ancestors left the planet to make their own family. Certainly they told their children the tale of such a planet while also creating a home that tried to keep the culture alive. And culture will always change through outside influence and forgotten memories, but little bits of the original small details are still there. You have just grown too used to doing it that you don't realize that you're more of an original yato than you expect." Shinpachi pushed for any information. He really wanted to know more about what this man was beyond the violence, the pirate-life, and this city.
Housen thought he had no answer, but then his brain popped up an image of his family. He thought nothing special of his parents, but then he remembered his older sibling who ran across the shallow waters underneath the sun without an umbrella.
"I don't care if the sun weakens me, Housen-dya. I don't care even if it kills me. I don't want to be bound by the violence of our culture when there are many facets about us as yato. If I have to fight, it will be with myself."
He remembered a beautiful bright smile that defeated the sun, yet that innocent free-willed smile disappeared one cloudy day when his older sibling was forced by their father to kill him for the sake of tradition. Sons killing their fathers was an act that was supposed to die out due to their depleting numbers, but some people can't let go of their culture.
Housen redirected his thoughts to the pleasure of his life, and then his tongue reminded him of the delicious food his older sibling cooked for him. He replied, "If you must know, there was a few writings of my ancestors preserved. They told of Kouan being a planet filled with plenty of wild life and crops. One detail that especially stood out to me was that the grass grew plentiful like the ones on this planet, but our grass was tasty and edible. It was used to either be chewed on to delay hunger or used as a spice in our foods. When dry, they tasted minty with a hint of sweet and sour. But they would also taste salty and meaty if you were to soak it in one of the planet's fruit's juices."
"Oh so your kind weren't only warriors but also farmers like us."
"Farming never existed on that planet. It was a belief that good food is only made when hunted and that the plants are allowed to live within their natural habitat. There were seasonal huntings, laws and the such in order to not dry up the resources or fight over them. Also unlike your planet, we never had a currency system. It was strictly a barter system. The learn of trade was a necessary lesson to have in order to survive."
Shinpachi felt himself fall into a new world, "Ooooh! So not only warriors, but hunters and gatherers and tradesmen! Were there artists? Did your people care for aesthetics? Inventors? Blacksmiths? Philosophers or scholars? Courtesans?"
Housen smiled at his full blown curiosity. He remembered being like that with his older sibling who held him close to listen to the written records. "Before we were introduced to the umbrella and other weaponry by foreign traders, our body were self-made weapons so blacksmiths or inventors for that did not exist. However, we did have weavers, cooks, teachers, and plenty of roles to build a society. The yato also held gladiator arena matches where battles to the deaths took place, but there were far less deadly sports that took place of course."
"What sort of sports? Have you played them?"
"The sports were activities that pushed a yato to their very limits from hunting the mightiest beasts, to being able to reach one point to the other faster than others, and who had the biggest appetite! Our body is the most precious part of ourselves. These days, brats believe that a yato is all about fighting on the battlefield, and part of that is true. We must quench our thirst for battle, but it is also important to enjoy the other waters that life will give you."
"I see. So were there yato courtesans?" Shinpachi didn't forget that missing detail. He definitely wanted to know.
Yet Housen's guffawing pretty much answered him, "As if a yato woman could ever be this refined! Once a yato finally gets the itch to quench their soul with sex, they are all wild animals. If a mere Earthling like you were to try to bed a yato woman, you better have a surgeon ready to fix your penis and the rest of your body! HAHAHAHA!"
"Huuuuuh. Then are male yatos gentle? I hear all the time from your harem that you're pretty gentle with them despite your immense strength."
"Haven't you been told that I don't like my courtesans being abused in times of sexual pleasure? Besides, not all yatos like it rough, but a majority of yato women has that preference."
Shinpachi found that interesting. He wondered if he could get aroused for women. Before coming to Yoshiwara, girls and boys were no different to him. And now, he was expected to pleasure men, which seemed like an unnatural cruel fate, but after receiving education on the matter, he looked at it objectively as work. Well, the future will tell eventually.
He continued the conversation, "Then what about the afterlife? Earth has many religions that has stories and descriptions about the afterlife. What about your people?"
Housen sipped his tea first before answering, "Since many of our kind died through battle, we believed that the afterlife was a valley of feasts, entertainers, and even more war that would satisfy our quench for all things. But you were only allowed in such a place if you were to killed in an intense battle. If you were to die through poison or old age, then your soul will simply be reincarnated into a new warrior until you have died such a fate."
"And for those who have done terrible things like rape, kidnapping, thievery of the poor, and such?"
"Then their souls would be eaten by the beast in the sun who would make sure they suffered until they are purified into a noble warrior once again. As for the punishments not deemed by death, then they were left chained inside a cavern where the sun at its highest and hottest peak will shine on them as they are left to starve until they howl for forgiveness. If given the chance to be forgiven, they were exiled to the other side of the ocean."
"How would your people know that the person was the true criminal?"
Housen tapped his nose. "Through their animals who have an incredible nose that will not be deceived by perfume that intended to hide the scent of an individual. They are able to make out the scent of fear, murder, and such that have been laid on a person's body, which makes them find the murderer."
"Wooooow! So your people did animal domestication!" Shinpachi felt his body light up from all this new knowledge.
Housen was proud to tell the boy all this. In fact, he never truly had the opportunity to share these types of information with anyone. With that thought, he felt closer to the boy than he intended to. He suddenly felt embarrassed by such emotions he never felt before that he deemed that it was time for Shinpachi to head back and sleep for the next night.
Shinpachi helpfully yawned and agreed. He thanked Housen for the new information, and then excused himself with his messy hair and clothes. Housen stayed in the room for a bit with the unfinished game of Go. His vague childhood memories submerging him into nostalgic emotions that he hadn't felt before. The memories most vivid was the greater traumas he experienced as a little brother.
After the death of his father, his older sibling took his hand, turning that back away from their mother. Housen remembered the proud gaze of his mother on his older sibling's back, but then looking away, he saw a face of misery on his older sibling's. At such an age, he didn't understand what was right and wrong. He just knew that his mother was pleased and his older sibling was in pain. And such an old memory weighed heavily on the chest of this old retired man, and had convinced the man to cut off any chances of a child coming to life. He felt no shame that his balls were empty and he had no child of his own.
Out of nowhere, regret filled him that the image of the younger men in his crew and Kamui appeared before his eyes to ease that bitter emotion. Yet the image of Shinpachi shone brighter before his eyes. He looked down at the unfinished game of Go, and softly laughed at the fool he was.
._._._.
Tsukuyo looked out from the roof of the palace with Jiraia. The streets appeared to be peaceful, but the tension within the palace had began to become suffocating. They understood that it was because Housen had begun to ignore his courtesans. The king who would usually drink and ruin a bed nightly between maintaining the city had done that less and less, and instead opted to use his endless free time to drink alone and surprisingly read. Tsukuyo couldnt shake off her awkward feeling from having a meeting with Housen earlier with only her master as the other person present. Instead of two beautiful courtesans serving him sake, he was doing it himself with a novel at his side.
She couldn't figure out how Housen had become so...not necessarily boring or normal, but...tamed. Even that word felt wrong to her. The only thing she could think of that could connect the dots was that boy. She knew he went by his former name for a year, but after his name finally changed, his former name was difficult to remember. She thought that it was because his former name didn't hold a light to his present name 'Haku Mei Kousen', otherwise meaning streams of light softly gleaming through the opening of the clouds (Crepuscular Rays).
From time to time, she heard about the boy being a hard worker, and then also a strange child who smiled for Housen. Since then the boy had been meeting with him privately, and all the courtesans believed that Housen did this only out of curiosity for the boy's personality. Everyone knew the man had absolutely no interest in men, and especially never for little boys. But no matter how strange this child was, he can't possibly be the reason why Housen was acting differently.
Tsukuyo believed that, too, but then the way the boy took control of the matter of his own abuse had shocked her. But what completely shook her was the way he spoke to Jiraia, her own master, as if the greatest shinobi was his inferior.
"Master." She spoke with hesitance. "That boy, Haku Mei Kousen, who is he?"
Jiraia answered knowingly, "He's the former son of a samurai who had to repay the debts of a dojo by selling one of his two children, a boy and a girl."
"Boy and a girl? And he sold the boy?" Tsukuyo was deeply surprised by this. She had a younger brother as well, but she was the one chosen to be sold since she was the girl.
"Curious aren't you. I was curious as well, so I did some investigation to discover that the father simply chose the boy because he favored his daughter more, and had lied to her that her little brother had moved in with an uncle who helped pay off the debts. A parent would usually choose the daughter to be sold because the son is the one who carries the name and the family business, but in that boy's father's case, he realized that he would rather have his legacy absorbed into a different name through marrying his daughter off to a rich man than to have her suffer."
"And the mother?"
"She ran away two years ago in order to avoid the fate of the loan sharks. Smart move since she may have been the one to be sold instead of her children." Tsukuyo frowned at that reality, but then her master added, "Oddly enough, the boy still loves the mother who abandoned him, and could possibly be the reason he was able to survive in this Hell without a broken or timid demeanor."
Jiraia looked down with his enhanced eye sight to see a familiar woman dressed as a man walking through the streets of Yoshiwara obviously searching for someone. But he ignored since he had a mission outside of Yoshiwara that Tsukuyo couldn't follow him to. He hesitated, thinking about the several frustrated courtesans within the palace and the potential bloodshed that might awaken in his absence. He wanted to remain for a bit to weed out a potential murderess, but then he knew that some bloodshed can't be avoided.
He left things to Tsukuyo before leaping to one of the tunnel pipes for the outside.
._._._.
Shinpachi had slept peacefully still on his bed, wrapped in bandages after the massacre. Yet the small sound of the windows opening immediately woke him up. His fear overtook the pain or exhaustion he felt since over a week ago. His brain rewinded to when he was nearly killed by the insane courtesan, and now he was completely unable to move. He felt his soul already packing up to leave his body, but then it settled down its luggage when the man with the turtle-like eyes came to view.
"You..."
The man smiled down at him, before digging his fingers into his bottom eyelids. Shinpachi tried to fuse with the bed when the man stretched those lids down so he could push his real head out of one of the eye holes. Out came a turtle head with antennas. The arms deflated and six beetle-like legs stuck out and stretched the eye hole wider to allow the skin to drop off its body. Shinpachi came to the realization that the body suit was part of the body as it melded into a shell on the amanto's back.
"Ah...AAAAAA-MMMMMMMMPH!" Shinpachi's mouth was covered by one of the legs. He kept his mouth shut to keep the long hairs from entering.
"You don't want to hurt these sensitive turtle ears do you." The man spoke raspily, and seeing that the boy had calmed down, he removed his leg.
Shinpachi spoke quietly, "You're the customer that meets Nobuyuki-san any time Master Jiraia leaves Yoshiwara, and then leave before he comes back as if you know his every movement. I'm guessing that's why Master Jiraia hadn't faced you yet for questioning."
The turtle-beetle suddenly slipped into its shell. The hard case landed perfectly upright on the floor before the legs and head popped out again. One leg held a bejeweled smoke pipe while the other had a match. He ran that stick against his shell to catch fire, and then with bedroom eyes stuck the stick within the pipe. He inhaled the smoke deeply, and then let it slowly go through the crevices of his mouth. Big puffs exiting with each word.
"My oh my, aren't we quite attentive." The man put the turtle origami in the boy's view. "The name's Durt. Nothing fancy like yur Japanese names. Hakumeikousen. Quite the mouthful there. But better than your old name. Probably would've been cursed with that 8 kanji in it."
Shinpachi didn't quite understand the last sentence, and he wasn't quite sure how to approach this carefree attitude. "Uhm, Du-Durt-san, I don't know why you decided to visit me now..." He honestly didn't know what to say or ask. He feared that this man may be like the second Nobuyuki with a mix of the first.
"Aaaaaah," The man moaned with playful sadness. "That night. We, or more like Kumori, wanted Lady Hinowa killed so Housen would cling to ya more to hurry up the plans of assassination. Sorry 'bout that. Swear that my babe Kemuri and I didn't wanna play in this revenge plot poorly planned in the decades, but Kumori and Kiri has us by our breathing anuses. Those assholes don't actually care that their planet is destroyed. Just that their pride was fucked with. Haaaaah." The man inhaled deeply again before lying down next to the boy. The smoke didn't reach Shinpachi, and instead seemed to seep through the corner of the man's mouth.
Shinpachi felt his ears become Dumbo-size at the mention of three significant names. "Kumori? Kiri? Kemuri? Cloud, Fog and Smoke."
"Names they adopted for themselves to not be found by those Harusame guys. N' yes, I'm de guy who saved my precious Kemuri and those fuckers. Never intended tah." The Turtle Beetle sighed and then inhaled his pipe before letting it seep out his nostrils as well this time. "Those two would've been better off dead, so Kemuri and I could have all the fun and sex we want. But Kiri knew a merchant like me with a network bigger than Housen would've already caught on to the yato ambush and had prepared an escape route for us. Lousy coincidence that he was nearby with Kumori who had enough brains to follow Kiri."
"If you have a big network, then how is Kumori-san and Kiri-san capable of binding you to their revenge scheme? If you don't mind me asking."
The turtle closed his eyes, taking an inhale and then sighed. "Knew we'd get to that question, and I hate ta answer, but ya see, when ya get dragged into the BSAT, the crew becomes a slave to the highest ranking official, and that's solidified through chemical injection."
"Chemical injection?"
"Too science-y tah explain, so all ya gotta know is that the biggest ranker has control of who lives and who dies. A deep firm decision can telepathically murder an underling. Kiri was the second commander of the BSAT which means Kemuri can be killed by him if he so wishes. He's only alive cuz I hand the goods."
"Then what are you doing talking to me?! If he finds out, Kemuri-san will die!"
"Yeah, but if Kemuri dies, he dies cuz while I'm a merchant, I'm one of the best gun wielders in the galaxy. Kiri knows that if anything bad happens to Kemuri, him and Kumori will have a bullet shot in the ass, but I'll make sure the hit isn't critical ta keep them suffering fer a bit longer." He let out a heart shape smoke. "So basically its a standoff between thee four of us."
"I see. So talking to a child like me isn't really considered a threat since Lord Housen and Master Jiraia may already know the tidbit of information that you had provided me. And you don't plan to actually tell me your genuine plan to take down Lord Housen by using me as a game piece. You only came to check up on me."
"Heeheeheehee!" The raspy laughter was breathy that it scared the boy a bit. "Kemuri likes ta talk about you. He noticed you before ya became their lil' trainee. 'Course in a city where male courtesans are a rarity. Boys yer age are too rowdy n' fragile to handle the career of a courtesan, especially with all de hate n' pity from de female courtesans around. The only ones who survive were already pretty timid or broken to begin with, but you were neither. You just looked up n' saw the strength of thee sun n' you flourished into a quiet storm."
"Quiet storm?"
The Turtle Beetle smirked yet spoke dismissively, "Nothin' important."
"Oh." Shinpachi felt the conversation end and the awkwardness rose in him. The high of finally meeting the man in the conical hat began to wane and he thought back to the important parts of their conversation, especially the one of the massacre. It made him realize that the reason those women and girls died was because of him. He knew that Kiri-san and Kumori-san had something planned for him to use against Housen, and yet like the stupid kid he was, he played into their games. He got close to Lord Housen, discovered love again, and now suffered the consequences.
Durt refreshed his pipe and then took another deep inhale before blowing the smoke at the boy's face. Shinpachi's view turned blurry and then his pupils created various shapes out of the splotches of colors that popped out at him. The boy couldn't remember what exactly the shapes were but he knew that he definitely fell unconscious when he woke later.
The was the first and last time Shinpachi got to meet with Durt, but that was enough since he had all the information he needed. But what to do with that information, he didn't know in his miserable state until about three months after, an unexpected source of comfort came from Jiraia.
He followed that man to the palace where he promised to still remain someone learning to be wise yet demure so he could become the pillar of restraint and elegance as a future courtesan, but this time he will have another side of him that will become thunderous and havoc-wreaking to protect lives as a samurai.
Kiri smirked at the sight of Jiraia carrying Shinpachi to the palace. Kumori glowered with bubbling tension. Kemuri frowned before covering his hands over his eyes. Durt placed a leg on his head as comfort.
._._._.
A/N: So yeah, hope nothing was confusing.
But just in case, Kumori is the aggressive, uncomfortable first mood of Nobuyuki who beats Shinpachi and asks him uncomfortable questions. The second mood is Kiri who actually rarely sees Shinpachi, unless the boy needs to be examined and be reported to Housen. The third mood is Kemuri who is very kind to Shinpachi and practically held hostage with his lover Durt by the other two.
And there's some other OCs entering this story now.
